The 22nd of September I had to leave Ecuador with still loads to do and see. Since I wanted to do the Inca Trail I had to book the tour ahead of time and did it way before I went to South America (guess I just have to go back to Ecuador some day). Anyway in Lima I met up with the group and my room mate Michelle (how cool is that; Michele Hansen and Michelle Johnson!!). Lima did not impress me so I ended up having a burger for lunch, spent the afternoon in my room with HBO, before I finally got out of bed to have a Papa Jones pizza for dinner.
The 23rd we went to Cuzco, the day after we visited the Sacred Valley and spent the night in Ollantaytambo before starting the Inca Trail. The first evening we had the camp site for ourselves which meant that we (people from the group, the guides and a couple of porters) could play some soccer before dinner. A good one since I still, a week and a half later, have a decent bruise from a close encounter with Toby. This first night I let Michelle sleep by herself in the tent while I took my sleeping bag outside to enjoy an amazing view of the stars. Day two was a bit more challenging having to go through Dead Women’s pass (4200 meters), however since I had been some time in the altitude before the trek it was pretty easy and spent the time in front practising Spanish with the porters. Day three, one day before Machu Picchu, my camera decided to not work anymore! So therefore I made Michelle take a few pictures of me at MP ( the picture to the left is me and Hayley) while I borrowed her camera to take a snap shoot of the two alpacas putting on a show for the tourists where the result is the picture on the right.
After finishing the Inca Trail five of the fourteen on the trek went to the jungle. Even though we did not see the jaguar Michelle was hoping for we got to enjoy some wildlife (rats that can be up to 60 kg, spiders, birds, alligators, a sloth etc) and a climate that brought me right back to my year in Singapore. After two days in the jungle I said good bye to my friends and went back to Cuzco, again on my own. After some recommendations from a British girl I met in Rio I went to Loki Hostel where I got a demonstration of how small this world is, because there was Henrik - one of the guys from NHH who was in Singapore on exchange at the same time as me. Scary! I spent some relaxing days in Cuzco before leaving for Arequipa for more trekking.
